Update: Ronnie Stanley returns, making ND a top 15 team for next year.
It was reported, first by Irish Illustrated, that Ronnie Stanley and Sheldon Day had a meeting with Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly on Wednesday. The topic? Well, you already know the topic: NFL Draft early entry.
Stanley still has not made a decision; the deadline is Thursday. Sheldon Day made it official that he’s returning to South Bend today; issuing a statement through the school:
“While the process leading up to this decision was difficult, ultimately my decision to return was easy. I love this school, my teammates and this coaching staff. I just felt it was in my best interest to play another year for Notre Dame.
“I believe we’ve got an opportunity to have a special season in 2015 and I wanted to be a part of that success. I was blessed to play in the national championship game as a freshman in 2012, and I want to do everything in my power to reach that stage again with my guys.”
The 2014 Notre Dame Moose Krause Lineman of the Year and Irish co-captain, Day started the first 10 games of the 2014 season before a knee injury against Northwestern (Nov. 15) sidelined him against Louisville (Nov. 22) and USC (Nov. 29). He returned to the Irish starting lineup, picked up a pair of tackles and recovered a fumble in Notre Dame’s 31-28 victory over No. 22 LSU in the 2014 Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl.
Day dodged a question about his NFL Draft status in the Music City Bowl postgame presser, but it was pretty well known at that time that he was coming back. Therefore, today’s official announcement is not surprising at all.
Back to Ronnie Stanley, his situation is very intriguing. Some evaluators did not give him a first round grade. Yet look at this NFL mock draft database from Walter Football– you’ll see Ronnie Stanley not just in the first round, but in the top five overall in quite a few of the mocks.
If Stanley gets top five feedback, then he must go. If he gets top 20, top 25 feedback even, the decision is a no brainer. Nobody wants to “pull a Matt Leinart/Matt Barkley/Jake Locker” and see your draft stock devalued by returning to school.
If you can go, you should go. There are very few Andrew Lucks in this world; who stayed an extra year in school and still saw everything work out alright.
Here’s where we have Ronnie Stanley projected in our 2015 NFL mock draft; and where we have Sheldon Day projected in our 2016 NFL mock draft.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2
